Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Chris Krebs indicated today he sees no threats to election infrastructure that would jeopardize a fair midterm election, and bitterly decried people that cast doubt on the integrity of the election process with no firm evidence to back up their claims.
Krebs headed CISA and its predecessor Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component for two and a half years before he was fired by the White House in November 2020 shortly after election security leaders, including those from CISA, proclaimed that the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history.” He has since helped found his own Krebs Stamos Group cybersecurity firm.
Speaking at a Washington Post Live event today, Krebs said “there is no evidence whatsoever that the government has been able to find, they’re not aware of any right-now threats or other risks to the process of administering elections that would, you know, up-end an otherwise free and fair election.”
Asked about comments from some candidates in Tuesday’s midterm elections in which they will not commit to accepting election results, Krebs called that a “sad state of affairs.” He added, it’s become “fashionable to be vague of ambiguous and not be able to commit to the will of the people.”
For some candidates, maintaining doubt about reported election results, Krebs said, has become a “mainstream, almost platform issue … I think it’s a real crisis.”
Turning back to the 2020 elections, Krebs said “not only was it deemed to be a safe and secure election … I think the statistics behind that statement stand up.”
“It was the most audited election,” he asserted, with 43 states plus the District of Columbia conducting post-election audits.
He said that one key lesson learned from 2020 that “should be taken to heart by everyone involved in the political process right now, is you do not mess around with the overall … trust behind the electoral process and the confidence behind it.” He continued, “It is not a game, you do not claim that [the] election was stolen. If you do, you better follow through and you better bring up some stats and you better have some litigation behind it.”
